Ryūtai Gunbi
by Ryuuohjin
Summary: Orochimaru stumbles upon Naruto after some village gave him a beating, and was fascinated but he found. How will this change Naruto's life? Sorry, I'm not good at summaries, this story will be AU, and contain a female Naruto, just so you are warned if don't like it don't read it. This is an alternate version of my Leaf's Fire Gem Story. (On Hold)
1. Chapter 1 - Beginnings

**/|~{ (- Author's Note -) }~|\**

 **Official Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or any referenced or related works in that may appear in this story. If there ever is an OC inclusion in this the resemblance of a name and/or physical appearance to anyone living or deceased is completely coincidental. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the sole property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author.

This an alternate version of my Leaf's Fire Gem story, if there any inconsistencies or if see anything wrong please tell me. Or if you like you could also tell me, since that is always nice to hear. So after you have you finished reading it, I would like it if you left a review with thoughts about it.

I will warn you now, this story will be AU, and it will contain a female Naruto, but no Naruko.

It may also contain a female Haku, that still up to debate.

I have yet decided on any pairing, or if I should have any at all.

Like the previous story, this will start a bit before Naruto canon. With main differences that Orochimaru has yet to abandon the village, but is still very discontent with it, he has just not been caught doing something bad enough to run yet.

If any of this displeases you, then don't read it, as I will ignore anyone complaining about those points, just so you know. That was all, now onto the story.

 **Update 2018-02-16:** Rewrote most of the chapter.

 **Update 2018-02-17:** Grammar & spell check.

 **/|~{ (- Author's Note -) }~|\**

 **Chapter 1 - Beginnings**

' _Why me?'_ cried a young boy, as he ran in panic through the back streets of Konohagakure no Sato. He was closely followed by an angry mob of villagers. He never knew what he had done to make the villagers hate him so much. But almost everyone in the village seemed to hate him for some reason. It had been like this as far as he could remember, and he didn't know why.

Soon he runs into an ally, but unfortunately for him, it turned out to be a dead-end and desperately turns around only to come face to face with the feet and fists of the mob. After an hour of beating the boy to a bloody pulp, the mob dispersed, their energy finally spent, leaving the boy bruised and broken in a large pool of his own blood.

However, the boy was still somewhat conscious, and most of his cuts and bruises had already begun to heal. Broken bones were starting to mend, wounds were rapidly closing, and scars were disappearing. But just as the boy was about to leave, he notices a man standing above him, before blacking out before when the man knocked him out.

 _'Amazing regeneration powers… he could be useful in perfecting some of my techniques without having to use up so many test subjects,'_ the man thought. _'I could perfect the processes on him and then try it out on the others to test its effects on a normal human.'_

With that, the man bent down and grabbed the boy and flung his now unconscious body over his shoulder. 'Kukuku, I can barely to see wait see what this child body can handle.'

 **/|~{ (-I-) }~|\**

The room was dark. Only a small dimly lit by a small light hanging from the ceiling, which was reflected in the many esoteric and bizarre medical and scientific devices that filled the room. Bottles, test tubes and pipes with strange glowing liquids sat alongside racks of sharp and gruesome surgical instruments, some of them still caked with the blood and flesh of the last person they were used to cut into. The air was thick with the smell of blood, medicine, and different chemicals.

Standing next to a large test tube in the center of the room was a tall man with long black hair. He had pallid white skin, yellow snake-like eyes with thin purple tattoos around them and a pair of purple magatama-shaped earrings that rattled as he worked. Clad in black shinobi sandals, grey trousers, a purple rope-belt and a tan robe, the man would have stood out in a crowd.

Why wouldn't he? For this man was, Orochimaru, one of the Three Legendary Sannin of Konohagakure, and student of the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Currently, he was studied what was inside of the test tube. It was a young boy, clad only in his birthday suit, that was marred with scars here and there. A large seal, that almost seemed to pulsate, could also be seen covering most of the child's stomach. The boy was also hooked up to multiple wires and with an oxygen mask covered the lower part of his face. His eyes were closed and his hair was discolored by the dark green liquid he was in, that looked like it had chakra in it. A heart monitor beeped constantly. Around the tube were endless sedative drugs and other sleeping drugs to keep someone or something unconscious. Even some multi-layered Genjutsu scrolls were scattered around on the tables.

Several of the computer monitors flared up. Orochimaru turned to one, trying to figure out what it meant. It's been a quite a while since he had managed to obtain this child to experiment on. He had tried to infuse the child with DNA stolen from the crypts of the First and Second Hokage, along with some from his teammate Senju Tsunade, the First Hokage's granddaughter. It had been attempt to see if had he could recreate the any the abilities that the Senju clan was famous for, using gene-splicing techniques.

He also tried to infuse child with cells from the child's mother and First Hokage's wife, Uzumaki Mito, to see if he awaken anything that way. But the child body, like all other test subjects he had tried it on, had rejected the DNA, and after several repeated attempts he abandoned that project. He suspected the child would have died if it wasn't for the high regeneration abilities he possessed from being an Uzumaki and a jinchūriki.

Orochimaru had also implanted bone marrow from a member of the Kaguya clan, in an attempt to see if the child would obtain their kekkei genkai, the Shikotsumyaku (Dead Bone Pulse), which gives its wielder the ability to manipulate their own skeletal structure. The main capabilities of Shikotsumyaku were allowing the user to manipulate the speed of their bones' growth as well as the location of calcium deposits allowing for great versatility.

Which allowed the user to create weapons of their bones that can either protrude from any part of their body or pulled out and used like handheld weapons. They could also use this to create armor of dense bone underneath their skin. Users could increase the density of the created bones, making them stronger than steel. But even that had ended in miserable failure, with the child once again only surviving because of his fast healing factor.

Orochimaru had also injected the child with blood from the Hōzuki and Yuki clans, hoping to get some of the traits that were known for. The Hōzuki clan known for their ability to liquefy their body. Through the usage of their Suika no jutsu, clan members could turn their body into water. While the Yuki clan was known for their ability to manipulate water into forms of ice. But still no noticeable change. It just been more trashing and screaming from the from the boy and nothing more.

Although, one that Orochimaru still a little miffed about that the cursed seals he had created, constantly kept being rejected. They just kept dissolving and burning away. He had no doubt the bijuu that was sealed in the child was the one responsible for this. But even after he put additional seals over the one that held Kyuubi, it still kept getting rejected, so he abandoned that for later.

"Hmm... Interesting..." Orochimaru mumbled to himself while stroking his chin as a small frown appeared on his face. "Not as planned. But still interesting... Now then..." A ping was then heard as a button was pressed. "Let's see what happens if we do this..."

The boy cried out in pain as several long needles attached to tubes drove into the child's back, and an ominous looking liquid was poured into his small body. The boy then lets out a small groan, his petite body twitching from the sudden shock of pain as the needles were pulled out of his back. Now all that was left was to wait... and didn't take long for something to happen.

The child's eyes were opened wide and his pupils dilated, he opened his mouth wide as if to utter out a loud scream. No sounds came out, and instead, he uttered out a hoary, voiceless breath, as the boy bucked and jerked, his back arching, body stiffening with hard unsteady spasms as pain ran rampant. Orochimaru's eyes then widened as a bubbling surge of red chakra coated the boy's body, shaping itself into a fox cloak. Orochimaru instantly knew who's chakra this was, it was without a doubt, unmistakably the chakra of the Kyuubi. It bubbled like boiling water, frothing and continuously moving, transforming, shifting, changing.

An oppressive atmosphere began to weigh down on them, malevolent intent focused specifically on Orochimaru. A few moments passed, the oppressive aura growing stronger second by second until it felt like a literal weight on his shoulders that almost had his legs shaking beneath him. A sharp feral scream hung in the air as the child's body tensed up over several seconds, his back arching, trembling shivers and sharp twitches running through his body. His skin flaking and getting absorbed into the dark red shroud that now covered, hiding any distinguishing features.

Then after final spasms and thrashing, it seemed to have ended, and the child slumped together, out cold once more. Orochimaru smirked as the what happened to the child now that the Kyuubi's chakra receded, it was quite amusing.

"Most unexpected..." Chuckling, he tapped a few buttons on a console and the liquid started draining from the tube. Leaving the child sagging as only the wires supported its body. It seemed that the once a little boy was now a little girl. "How intriguing... I wonder what more have changed... Quite interesting indeed... Wouldn't you also say so Sarutobi-sensei?"

"Orochimaru," the newly revealed Hokage snarled as Orochimaru turned his head slightly, and smiled at the newcomer. "It seems you have not changed one bit."

Orochimaru just laughed. "I am sorry, sensei, while would I love stay and chat, it seems that I must take my leave. Goodbye."

Then he disappeared in a swirl of leaves, leaving the unconscious newly boy turned girl and the old man alone. He sighed and released the long black staff he was holding. It poofed out of existence and changed into large ape with white fur and a Konoha headband around its forehead.

"Sarutobi, this is the second time you have released him," Enma, the white ape commented.

"I know old friend, I just could not do it," the Third replied. He sighed sadly and began releasing all cables, wires, and tubes, that child tiny frame hanging, before he proceeded to carry the little girl out of the dim room.

"Let's go, Enma," he said, hands covered around the small child protectively. "Let's find out what other things Orochimaru had done to this child."

The ape sighed an nodded, before poofing out of existence, as the Hokage made his way to the hospital as quick as could.

 **/|~{ (-I-) }~|\**

A little over two weeks later, a large man could be seen approaching the gates of Konoha rapidly. He was tall and imposing, with waist-length, spiky white hair usually tied back into a ponytail, with two shoulder-length bangs that framed both sides of his face. He also had red lines that ran down from his eyes and a noticeable wart on the left side of his nose.

He was dressed in a green short shirt kimono and matching pants, under which he wore mesh armor that showed out of the sleeves and legs of his outfit. His outfit was completed with hand guards, a simple black belt, traditional geta, a red haori with two simple yellow circles on each side, and a scroll on his back. He wore a horned forehead protector with the kanji for "oil", denoting his affiliation with the toads of Mount Myōboku. To most, the man was another Sannin known as Jiraiya the Toad Sage, spy and seal master of Konohagakure, another student of the Third Hokage.

With him were two women, one was of average height with brown eyes and waist-length blonde hair with shoulder-length bangs framing both sides of her face. She wore a grass-green haori with the kanji for "gamble" written in black on the back, inside a red circle. Underneath she was wearing a grey, kimono-style blouse with no sleeves held closed by a broad, dark bluish-grey obi that matched her pants. Her blouse was closed quite low, revealing her sizeable cleavage. Her feet were adorned with open-toed, strappy black sandals with high heels and red polish on both her fingernails and toenails. She also wore a soft pink lipstick. She was none other than Senju Tsunade, a.k.a. Slug Princess and the last student of the Third Hokage, and final member of the Legendary Sannin. And it was quite clear she was not the least happy be in the village.

The other was an also fair-skinned woman of average height, but a more slender build with black eyes and shoulder-length hair with bangs that covered her ears and framed her face. She donned a long bluish-black kimono with white trimmings, held closed by a white obi, and open-toed sandals with low heels. Cradled to her chest was Tonton, Tsunade's pet pig. This woman was Kato Shizune, Tsunade's apprentice.

Many years ago, as the Third Shinobi World war had ended, Tsunade had left the Hidden Leaf village. The death of her younger brother Nawaki and lover Dan had become too much to bear for her. Shizune was Dan's niece and with no other living relatives, she took it upon herself to look after the young girl. Over the course of a few years, Tsunade had trained Shizune in the Shinobi Arts and medical Ninjutsu, molding her into a fine kunoichi. In return, Shizune acted as the Sannin's overseer. During their time away from the village, Shizune often worried about Tsunade's constant gambling, losing money and only to then borrow more.

Tsunade was notorious for her reputation as a terrible luck as a gambler, thus earning her the title "The Legendary Sucker". The woman had incurred such a debt that she had yet to repay that most would've found themselves thrown behind bars long ago. It was only because of Shizune's wit and voice of reason that kept her mentor out of jail. That and the woman's colossal strength.

When Jiraiya had gotten the message of what Orochimaru did to his godson, along with orders to hurry back and to bring Tsunade back with him, kicking and screaming if needed too, but only use force if it was necessary. Until then they keep his godson under heavy sedation as were still quite unsure of the full extent of what Orochimaru had done to the poor child. And it was decided that it was best to keep him sedated while they were finding that out.

It had taken Jiraiya over a week to track Tsunade down, and she had really not happy to see him. She had been even less happy find out why he had searched for her. It had taken few days of explaining, asking, orders, threats, fighting, promises and guilt-tripping to make her return to Konoha with him. As soon as they arrived in Konoha they headed straight to Hokage tower to see what the hell was up. It had not been a fun time for anyone.

 **/|~{ (-I-) }~|\**

A couple of days later as Tsunade was reading through the latest report of her new patient, she couldn't help be amazed at what the child had lived through. From what her former teammate had left behind when he fled the village, along with what had discovered herself, she could conclude that Orochimaru himself seemed have only seemed to have a bare understanding of what he just had created. They yet have woken the child as at moment wake him... or maybe it should her, Tsunade wasn't sure but went with him for now, as they had no way of handling him just now.

What they currently knew was for going through Orochimaru's records, as well as tests they had done themselves, was that it really was Uzumaki Naruto, son Yondaime Hokage Minato Namikaze, and the former jinchūriki Uzumaki Kushina. And from what they could tell, Naruto was still the jinchūriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, although they somewhat unsure about the seal itself.

That, along with what seemed to be a new, as of yet unconfirmed, kekkei genkai of undetermined power. From what she had read it sounded quite dangerous to Tsunade, especially in the hands of a frightened and traumatized child. Which she was sure the child would be when he woke up, as it would surprise her if the child didn't get some kind of trauma from being Orochimaru's lab rat for so long.

Which was just a catastrophe waiting to happen, so that would have to be handled carefully. But it was the child's mental state that worried Tsunade the most, she would like to have a Yamanaka check the child mind and mental state but, mind-walking wasn't really recommended when dealing with a jinchūriki, because of their bijuu, but it really didn't seem like they would a have a choice.

Otherwise, physically speaking, there was not much Tsunade could find be wrong with the child. He was shorter than average for someone of his age. That along with his weighing way too little and being malnourished, and as a result of the modifications to his body, Tsunade assessed that physical, his body would develop more slowly than most. Although Tsunade doubted that physically his body would develop wouldn't much in the way of secondary sexual characteristics, but that was a worry for the future.

 **/|~{ (-I-) }~|\**

Elsewhere in Konoha Jiraiya had the similar feelings as he poured over the notes left behind by Orochimaru once again. Searching for anything that could be used in helping his godson, focusing especially on anything that had to do with child's seal, he had read about Orochimaru's latest experiment. As he was studying his former teammate's notes, his mind couldn't help wandering over all times in his life, where he felt had failed or he could have done more.

Like preventing Orochimaru for treading the dark path he now wandered or tried harder to stop him once he realized what his former friend had become. Then there was the death of Minato and Kushina, along with his failure as godfather, and he could hope Minato, Kushina, and especially Naruto could forgive him for that, even if he probably didn't deserve it.

What he had discovered so far was that the Kyuubi's seal was in disarray, while the core parts of the seal didn't seem like they had been touched. Other parts had either been changed, scattered, or removed. While some others parts had been added or were falling apart. He would need to make a new seal or reconstruct the old seal somehow.

The first option would be quiet hard without releasing the Kyuubi and killing his godson in the process, but he doubted that current one could be either repaired or restored, at least from what he had seen. But maybe he was wrong, and it looked worse than it actually was.

 **/|~{ (-I-) }~|\**

A few days later, Jiraiya, along with the Hokage, entered the Naruto's mind with help the Yamanaka clan, what meet them was a wast and devastated wasteland. It was hot and fiery. And red. And smelled like Sulphur. The entire sky above had fire lining the clouds, and flames covered the ground. Which felt like it was as hot as lava, and the air felt almost completely dry with extremely little moisture in it. The few trees that could be seen seemed to be made of hardened lava that grew out of the ground, which littered with cracks here and there. Otherwise, it was quite a desolate and lonely place, filled with fire and brimstone.

After having walked for quite a while, they came an upon the remains of what looked to have once been a humongous cage, but now just was a huge heap of old rusty of metal scraps.

 _'If this is what I think it is, then this is bad, really bad,'_ the Hokage thought as he studied was what left of the cage. _'I wonder what Orochimaru have done to cause this kind of damage.'_

As they ventured a bit further they got quite the surprise, where they expected there to be a huge demon fox with nine tails swishing menacingly behind it, while at the time same time glaring down at them, with eyes filled with hate and malice. There was instead a little girl, that looked quite frail, weak, and sickly, not mention exhausted, as she hanged listlessly from a pair chain that was attached to a pair of stone pillars, that stood on either side of her.

The girl looked very young, with a well-built predatory lithe figure, that had no baby fat on it. She had thin legs that were long for someone of her short height, with pale olive skin that had a slight exotic tint to it. Long crimson nails that looked like claws, decorated her hands and feet. She had a narrow angular face, with short and thick eyebrows, large sharp almond eyes, with a feral look to them, which were deep red, with vertical slits as pupils. A pair of large rabbit-like ears resided on the top her head, which twitched slightly now and then.

Her hair was orange and barely reached her shoulder, with a pair long bang going down her front passing her shoulders, and a shorter bang that stopped before it reaches her eyes, hanged bang between her horns. From the end of her spine she there was large fluffy fox tail could be seen, along with the stump of another one. Her top, if you could call it that, was a simple cloth wrapped around a pair of small perky breasts, and the same was with a loincloth covering her lower parts.

A thick metal collar could be seen adorning her neck, with a large padlock hanging from it, along with a chain that connects the collar to the floor beneath her. The padlock had old and frayed paper charm on it, with the kanji for 'seal' on it. Around her wrists ankles were sturdy and thick seamless manacles of metal, with heavy-duty chains connecting then to pillars beside her. Her hands were stretched up high as they were attached to the top of the pillar, her feet attached to the bottom.

 _'Is this what I think it is?'_ Jiraiya thought bemused as he studied the little girl.

"Hmm? Good someone is finally here," A high-pitched, clearly childish, yet booming voice said tiredly, as the trio of ninjas realized what they were seeing.

"K-Kyuubi," the Yamanaka gasped at what he was seeing. Although he was quite confused about the fox appearance.

"I know what you're wondering, 'why do look like a little girl?' and 'what has happened to my tails?', right?" Kyuubi asked bitterly, to which the trio just dumbly nodded.

"I don't remember exactly what it was, nor how long I have been like this," the fox girl as gathered what left of strength to stand up straight. "But know that is the result of the many experiments the snake bastard performed on Naruto."

"Not only did he keep altering and destroying the brat's body, with DNA he stolen, or some poison or serum he had created," the little fox-girl in front of him grumbled, making the ninjas stumble slightly over his high, light and girlish voice, the kind that put you in mind of innocence and kittens and pink and puppies, and not some kind of ancient congregation of malicious chakra, that had somehow gained consciousness. "But also he tried to infuse it with different kinds of chakra, along with trying to merge it with mine... With this as the final result... " the Kyuubi huffed pointing at its body.

"Why are you being so civil with us?" Hokage asked cautiously.

The Kyuubi snorted and said, "Because right now, you're the only one who can help me and my jailer. And we need help, quick too, for as you maybe saw the seal has been fractured and altered, it actually on the verge of breaking, and neither of us wants that just now. I don't think you realize, how lucky it was that you arrived when you did. I don't if could keep the brat's body going for much longer. For you see I don't even enough chakra to form more than one tail at the moment. And with how the seal now is formed, if Naruto dies so do I. If you release this seal, I promise you, you will get all help you would need to make a new one."

Instead of answering, and after a long and hard internal debate, Jiraya simply looked down at the seal tag covering on the padlock that hanged down from the collar around the fox-girl's neck and pulled up his right sleeve before weaving several hand signs. To others amazement and awe, a complex sealing array appeared on Jiraiya's arm which ran from his palm to his biceps.

Once the seal array finished forming, Jiraya focused his chakra into his fingertips to channel Senjutsu chakra into them, forming the Five Elements Seal and all five of his fingers glowed with the five elements. This was the Yondaime Hokage's masterstroke; the key to the most powerful sealing array in the world: the Hakke no Fūin Shiki. He promptly ripped it off in one go before slamming his hands onto the spirally shaped lock.

"Hakke no Fūin Shiki: Kai!" he yelled, turning his hand in an unlocking motion before stepping back. They watched as the lock slowly unraveled before falling to the floor, releasing the great bijuu from its restraints. The Kyuubi fell its knees exhausted, now that nothing was longer supporting it.

But before anything else happened, all the people in the room; three humans and one chakra being, noticed a pair of new presences, and they all turned to look at the newcomers. One was a man, that had been an exact carbon copy of an older Naruto, but this man was wearing a standard long-sleeved blue Jōnin garb and flak jacket, and he was also sporting a white haori with flame patterns licking at the bottom over the attire, and a forehead protector tied on his forehead.

The man's azure blue eyes were now solely focused on them as a frown formed on his handsome features.

"What happened here? Is that the Kyuubi? Why does it look like a little girl? And why is it free? How did it even get free in the first place?" the man asked seriously, more of a demand than a request as his mere presence and aura exuded authority and sheer power that practically demanded respect from everyone around him.

The other one was a woman, that looked an older version of Naruto, the way he looked now, just fair skin instead. She had a slender, but feminine build, fair skin, violet eyes, and red hair. It reached her waist with should-length strands that framed both sides of her face and a black clip that parts her hair to the left. She wore a high-collared, sleeveless blouse under a long, loose-fitting dress with a wristband on her left wrist and standard shinobi sandals.

"Why are you here? Where is Naruto? What is going on here?" the woman asked worriedly, as she looked around, searching for the blond, but only saw Jiraya, the Sandaime Hokage, and a Yamanaka that she didn't recognize. "Is that the Kyuubi?" she then asked shocked, as her eyes fell on the little girl chained in front of her.

Everyone, except for the Kyuubi, stared at two newcomers jaws open in shock. The Hokage was the one to first recover. "You two should be dead, so how come you're in here?"

"The seal possesses pieces of Minato and Kushina, echoes, and memories with a bit of their chakra, scraps of their soul, watching, observing, waiting," Minato answered while scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "We wanted to meet and help Naruto somehow, and these chakra imprints within the seal were the best we could do in the hurried circumstances."

"Brilliant Minato," Jiraya exclaimed amazed. "You truly are a genius."

"So now that, that is off out the way. Can someone please explain what is going on?"

 **/|~{ (-I-) }~|\**

The next day with the help of his parents and the Kyuubi, Naruto now had a new seal, which now was much larger out of necessity, covering most of the body. The new seal was now integrated deep into Naruto's chakra system. It was now more stable and sturdy than before, with better security and more fail-safes then ever. This thanks not only what little chakra Minato and Kushina had left, but also contributions from Third Hokage and Jiraiya, even the Yamanaka had helped a little. Then surprising everyone the Kyuubi had added its own twist to the whole increasing the seal integrity even more. It the strongest and most complex seal Jiraiya had ever seen, as not even, he didn't even fully understand parts of it. It would show itself as a red glowing pattern all over Naruto's body whenever the Kyuubi's chakra would enter his chakra system.

They had taken what had been left of the old seal and used that as and base. Minato and Kushina, with help of the Yamanaka, had done what they could secure and reinforce force the seal form the inside. With the Yamanaka adding some traps and defenses against mental tampering. While Jiraiya and the Hokage had reinforced and secured the seal on the outside. The Kyuubi had then added some of its own chakras to interweave both parts, and to make them a more resistant tampering. Jiraiya also used some nature chakra to make it harder to breach, along with hiding and disguising any traces of the Kyuubi's chakra as good as he could.

It was late in the morning when Naruto began to stir, signaling to the nurse on duty, that he was about wake up. A few moments later Naruto then lets out a soft groan and tentative, he slowly, bleary opened his eyes and stared upwards. As Naruto slowly blinked awake the first thing he took in was the pale sterilized light of a hospital room. With some effort, Naruto turned his head to the left and saw Hokage-jiji, along with people he didn't recognize. Revealing to everyone present, a pair of large round golden irises, with small slitted pupils in the middle. While he fought to keep his eyes from watering two feelings overcame him at the same time, the first being a steady ache all throughout his body, while the second being the rough scratchiness of his own throat.

He tried to speak, but all that came out was a weak croak. The nurse moved forward and took a glass of water to Naruto's mouth and tipped the glass of refreshing liquid so that he was able to drink it. Naruto greedily drank the water and let out a soft sigh and turned to face Hokage and squinted his eyes.

"J-Jiji?" Naruto managed to whisper in a hoarse throat.

"Hello Naruto, how are you feeling?" the Hokage asked.

"Tired, really tired," the boy answered in mumbling.

"Naruto," the Hokage began, "could tell us what's the last thing you remember?"

Naruto nodded, closing his eyes in thought, his brows frowning in concentration. He then shudders at the memory and curls up into a ball and does the only thing a kid can do when they are overwhelmed he cries, it didn't take a Nara to figure out what happened next. Naruto then began to look around frantically with a panicked look in his eyes, as Naruto's hair began to lash out wildly, making it dangerous for anyone to come near him.

"Naruto!" Jiraya cried as he dodged a lock of hair that flew at him.

"Naruto!" the Hokage cried as he rushed to the panicking little former boy, wrapping him up in a tight hug as he began to sob into the old man's embrace.

"It's OK Naruto, you're, and we're here for you." The Hokage says calmingly, as he gently stroke Naruto's head as the child started to cry. "That's alright Naruto let it all out."

"Jiji, a-are these mean p-p-people?" Naruto asked sniffling as he nervously looked around, after having finally calmed down.

"Shhh, these are GOOD people," the Hokage said in a soothing tone as possible. "These are actually old friends and students of mine. They're here to help you, and so don't worry, they won't hurt you."

After Naruto calmed down but soon started to panic again when the doctors tried to do some medical checks on him. He calmed down again when the Hokage assured him that he was not in any type of danger, they had also been able to confirm him as the holder new kekkei genkai and were able to classify what abilities it had, and some of the hospital staff had become unable move, in few cases even unable to breathe, as Naruto's hair had been wrapped around his throat. While the other time he had hardened his own skin to be as hard as stone when he saw someone approach him with a needle.

 **/|~{ (-I-) }~|\**

A month had passed since Naruto woke up, and he had begun with his rehabilitation from his long time in bed, along with seeing a therapist, who specialized in trauma involving children, each day for counseling for his experiences under Orochimaru. He had been confirmed as by the carrier of a new kekkei genkai, which had been named the Ryūtai Gunbi (流体軍備), meaning quite literally fluid armaments. This ability allows him to freely turn almost any part of his body into almost any inanimate objects or reshape the size and figure of his body.

In theory, he would able to change his bodies size and measurements to look more mature and adult-like, even be able to change parts of his body into animal-like features that give him extra capabilities. Like growing a pair of wings from his back similar to a bird or a bat, to enable his flight. Or turn his legs into a fishtail similar to a mermaid with gills that lets him breathe and swim better underwater. Although Tsunade had been forbidden him to test any of this out, as not only would this require a huge amount of chakra, but would also put too much strain on his boy, especially since he was still growing.

Various tests had shown that Naruto's body now had enhanced durability, and a great amount of strength, for some of his age, despite his delicate child-like appearance. Along with enhanced agility and reflexes. Naruto's metabolism had also increased drastically, along with his apatite. He now needed to eat almost as much as an Akamichi, just to stay healthy, because how quickly his new body burned it off. They had also Naruto also had found out that he had immense chakra reserves, but that was probably just because he was an Uzumaki, along with being the jinchūriki of Kyuubi, instead of anything Orochimaru had done.

During this time the Hokage and his students discussed with Naruto, of what would when he left the hospital. It had been decided that from how the villages had treated him so far, it would be better for Uzumaki Naruto to die. Their plan was to have a Naruto clone which then has accident making people think that Uzumaki Naruto had perished. The clone would have a small amount of the Kyuubi's chakra sealed in it, just to add a sense of realism to it, and just in case if anyone would try to check for it. The amount would be really tiny, not enough to cause any major havoc or destruction, but enough to fool anyone checking for it. Meanwhile, the real Naruto would be given a new identity and would live as a girl, under the name of Tekiō Satsuki (適応殺姫), which would be an orphan, that had been rescued during a raid on one of Orochimaru's many hidden labs.

 **/|~{ (-I-) }~|\**

"We did it!" a man yelled out in a crowd of villagers. They all cheered. In the center of the crowd, all of whom were facing it, a small child lay beaten and broken. The moon cascading down on his bloodied blond hair, he was no longer breathing, the holes through the blond boy's chest ensured of that. "Hooray! The demons finally are gone, we're finally safe again!"

But after few moments of celebrating and reveling in the young boy's death, the moon suddenly disappeared behind a swirling mass of clouds. Weight. That was all they could think of when everyone collapsed to the ground. A weight like none other. It wasn't terrifying, for their mind went numb the moment they could no longer stand. And the weight seemed only to increase.

They could only stare on in fear. Fear for their life. Fear for their home.

Kneeling before the dead boy's body, they witnessed the sight of how suddenly angry red chakra began to crackle around dead boy's body and starts to shoot out like lightning bolts. The attackers watch as the chakra swirls and then shoots up to the sky, coalescing into a massive swirling whirlpool right above them. A cone of red chakra slowly formed over the boy, and then a pillar of dark red and malevolent chakra blasted off into the sky, hitting the middle of the swirling clouds. As a feeling of sheer terror consumed them, they watched, wide-eyed as it all unfolded.

It lasted for a minute, that moment in time. It felt like the whole world had stopped breathing. The moment between heartbeats. The chakra thickens as it gathers together, creating a cyclone. The cyclone morphs and thins, shaping itself, twisting. Like the chakra was relaxing yet pushing itself into this form.

Into the form of a gigantic fox's head.

A crimson gigantic fox's head with glowing golden eyes glaring at them.

Some of the attackers held a great fear, that they had been wrong.

"This couldn't be happening. This shouldn't be happening.", someone shouted panicked in shock and fear, wanting to run away, but were unable to. As they and anyone else nearby was, mesmerized by the sight, along with frozen stiff by immense feelings of anger and hate, they could feel rolling of the fox head in large waves. No of them could comprehend what was happening, or why it was happening. The Kyuubi is dead, most of them thought. They had just killed it, so it should be dead. They gasped for breath, trying to calm themselves, but the dark presence aimed at them made it difficult.

They all felt despair. They all felt helpless.

The fox head then opens its mouth and fearsome roar comes straight out of its mouth.

Nothing could've prepared them for the shock-wave that erupted from the roar. Most landed on their back several feet away, ears ringed like as if had been too close an explosion. The fox head lets out another large roar, this one was filled with chakra. Air laced with malevolent red energy rushed throughout the village, spreading terror and fear amongst all.

"I have you to thank, tiny humans, for finishing off the last true heir of the Uzumaki Clan. And for making your beloved Yondaime Hokage last moments in life in vain. Let not forget killing Naruto Uzumaki, the son of The Red Hot-Blooded Habanero Kushina Uzumaki and Konoha's Yellow Flash Minato Namikaze, and thereby releasing me from my prison."

Their eyes widened at the revelation.

"Ah, free at last. After almost 100 years of imprisonment by those annoying Uzumaki, and being controlled by those damned Uchiha. It feels kind of.. nice, I suppose I should say thank you. I could have done without all your help. As a reward, I will give you all a painless death." The fox chuckled, lips twisting in a snarl, as the head descends upon them. The area lights up as the fox head rips into the ground, trees tearing up from the ground due to the force of the chakra it was made up of expelling, only for it to dissipate moments later, leaving only a large crater and dead bodies behind.

 **/|~{ (-I-) }~|\**

At the Hokage's office the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, sat behind his desk, viewing the whole advent through an old crystal ball. He sighed in sadness and disappointment at the villager's actions. But at the same time, he was somewhat relieved. Now all that was left, was to see how long this gamble would work, as he had no delusions that this would work indefinitely. It would come out sooner or later, hopefully, later, much later. Giving Nar... No, it was Satsuki now wasn't it, the time needs to get strong enough matters himself, or herself, as it should be now, the Hokage corrected him himself.

To help this any and all information regarding the Kyuubi or Uzumaki Naruto had been classified as a top S-rank secret, under the punishment of death. He had also managed to get any most records about Tekiō Satsuki, classified as S-rank documents too, under the guise of protecting a newly discovered bloodline limit. Although they were only low S-rank, meaning that you get life in the Blood Prison, without any chance of parole.

Hiruzen was saddened by the loss of life, but the only reason the Kyuubi had agreed with help was that it would be allowed to kill anyone that participated in the killing of Naruto's clone. Which the Hokage had been vehemently against, but soon had most reluctantly agreed to. Naruto only input in this debate was that it would show villagers what could have happened, if had they really killed him for real.

Which Hiruzen had to agree on, if they only saw as Naruto who he was, instead of what he carried this would not have been needed at all. So in hope that maybe it wouldn't come to that point, the Hokage had agreed, with the stipulation it could only happen after that clone had died. Then Kyuubi chakra would act as a programme, before killing everyone near the clone. But apparently, his faith in villagers had been misplaced, much to his disappointment. Although the amount of Kyuubi chakra that been put in clone was without any will and quite minuscule, compared the wast reserves that the Kyuubi possessed. Hiruzen shuddered at thought of what would have happened if this had been the real Naruto, instead of just a clone.

 **/|~{ (-I-) }~|\**

 **TBC**

 **/|~{ (-I-) }~|\**


	2. Chapter 2 – The Princess and the Beetle

**/|~{ (- Author's Note -) }~|\**

 **Disclaimer -** The same as chapter one.

 **Update 2018-02-16:** Slight rewrite of some parts. Along fix some error here and there.

 **Update 2018-02-17:** Grammar & Spell check

 **/|~{ (- Author's Note -) }~|\**

 **Chapter 2 – The Princess and the Beetle**

Years later in a Classroom a Konoha's Ninja Academy, a class was currently waiting for their sensei to arrive, and the eager young aspiring shinobi were chatting adamantly among themselves, and in one case, sleeping. This year's batch of students saw the highest number of heirs and heiresses from the most prestigious clans in Konoha graduating in the same year and suffice to say many saw them as the greatest generation Konoha has ever produced.

Most noticeable were Nara Shikamaru of the Nara Clan, who was currently dozing off at the end of the class; Akimichi Chōji of the Akimichi Clan, who was munching on a bag of chips; Yamanaka Ino of the Yamanaka Clan, who was currently having a glaring contest with her rival and friend Haruno Sakura over who gets to sit with the last of the Uchiha Clan, Uchiha Sasuke, who was brooding beside the window while tuning out the argument that was beside him and thinking about how he would kill that man. There was also Aburame Shino of the insect-using Aburame Clan, who remained emotionless throughout the waiting session; Inuzuka Kiba of the Inuzuka Clan, who was petting his ninken Akamaru who was in his jacket, and last but not least, Hyūga Hinata of the Hyūga Clan, who was busy holding conversing with her two best friends Tekiō Satsuki and Fū.

Hinata had always been somewhat very shy around others due to her status as clan heiress, and her father's strict attitude towards her ever since her mother had died. Which had often lead her to wallow self-pity and sorrow because of it...

But that was before Satsuki and Fū had come into her life, which gave the poor girl the friendship and kindness the shy girl needs to get the strength she needed to do what she believed in, and not only what others expected of her. In a short time after befriending the girl, Satsuki and Fū had worked on breaking Hinata out of her shell and instilling the confidence she so desperately needed. After that the Hyūga Heiress become a force to be reckoned with during the Academy, sweeping aside almost all opposition aside. She had also earned her father's respect after the man saw her progress in the Academy, much to her joy and happiness. She couldn't repay her friends for what they did that turned her life for the better…

It had been a cold winter day when Hinata's had met first meet Satsuki. She had been bullied by three older boys, because of her Byakugan eyes, and making her break into tears. Satsuki, who been nearby had come to Hinata's defense, and had quickly beaten the boys up, but hadn't ended there. The next day got Satsuki had been called to the Hokage's office because the boys had told their mothers that Satsuki had apparently just appeared out of nowhere, and had suddenly just started to beat them up without any reason. When they had heard that the mothers had become enraged and had demanded that the Hokage to exile Satsuki, as she was clearly a danger to those around her. Even going so far call her liar when she told them her side of the story, for according to them their sons would never do something like that, meaning that Satsuki must be lying.

It had ended with the having to call in Hinata and her father, Hyuuga Hiashi, which were also the head of Hyuuga clan. When Hinata's story collaborated with Satsuki's, they called her a liar as well or claimed that Satsuki must have threatened her tell her that. Because if she could beat up three innocent boys without reason, what then stopped her threatening from Hinata, so would the girl would lie to protect Satsuki. At this point, both the Hokage and Hiashi almost had had enough and had asked for the boys to tell their story.

When boys meet Hokage's scrutinizing gaze and the leader of the started to tell their side of the story, one of them suddenly broke down bawling. He confessed that they had lied, and told everyone what really had happened, all the while the other two boys glared at him with looks of anger and betrayal clearly shown on their faces. At the end of it all, the boy's mothers were shocked, angry, and mortified, and had immediately begun apologizing to both the Hokage, the Hyuugas, and Satsuki, before they started to drag their offspring home by their ears, all while scolding and lecturing them on the way.

Satsuki was then formally introduced to Hinata's father, which thanked her for standing up for his daughter, and Satsuki and Hinata had close friends ever since. Although Satsuki had never told Hinata about her being born as Uzumaki Naruto, or being the Kyuubi's jinchūriki, as the Hokage had forbidden her to talk about or spread that fact, although Fū knew that was mostly because she had found out by herself, as she carried a burden similar to that of Satsuki, which had clued her in.

They were then later joined by Fū, who had been originally been born in Takigakure no Sato but had been giving to Konoha in exchange for an alliance, and some trade agreements, as Fū contained the Nanabi no Kabutomushi, the seven tailed beetle. Which was a bijuu, a chakra beast, similar to that of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, which Konoha had lost when its latest jinchūriki, Uzumaki Naruto, had died. Or at least most people in Konoha thought he had died, but Fū had soon learned the truth.

 **-| Flashback |-**

It had been the day after Fū had arrived in Konoha, while Fū had been on her way to meet the Hokage, when she had bumped into Satsuki, quite literally. After they both had apologized and introduced themselves to one another, Satsuki had decided to tag along, as she wanted to see the Hokage as well. As they walked Chomei, which was the name of the Nanabi, got a strange feeling from the dark-haired girl they had just met. It felt somewhat nostalgic, almost similar to itself, its something it hadn't felt in a very long time, and if it was this could mean trouble.

After a bit thought Chomei informed Fū of what it had discovered, and that it still couldn't identify what it was it felt, only that was powerful and felt?familiar. It suspected that it was another bijuu, but which one, it didn't know. It then told Fū, that she should be on her guard, just in case. Satsuki tried to tentatively chat a bit with Fū, on their the way there, mostly small talk of none significant importance, but kind Fū had been wary of the other girl, especially after being warned by Chomei, which had led to quite a one-sided conversation, but the other girl didn't seem to care.

When they had arrived Fū had been little taken by, with how much familiarity the dark-haired girl had greeted the wizened Hokage. After some more introductions, and the Hokage asking them how they both were doing, he got down to business about why they were here. He explained to Satsuki who Fū was and why she had been transferred here, which quite frankly had surprised Fū somewhat. That the leader of a village divulged that kind of a secret, to a young child no less. He then asked her if she would willing to Fū's guide, as well as if she to share her apartment with Fū.

Which once again surprised that a girl not even ten lived on her own, even owning her own apartment. Satsuki had agreed to that, stretched out her hand asking if Fū was comfortable with that. After a moment of brief hesitation, Fū had clasped the girl's hand in a firm handshake, also agreeing with that plan, thinking it was probably better than being in an orphanage or living all alone.

A tiny spark of chakra suddenly surged, when their hands were clasped, making them shiver slightly, as they felt something pulling them in. Blackness, that was the first thing they saw as they felt pulled, the place they were in now was not quite a room as it was a space, really. There are no walls, no ceiling, just a stretching blankness that goes on and on and on. With a small shudder, Fū forced herself up, quite confused about her surroundings, how she got here and where here was. As she looked she saw that Satsuki was none the wiser and just as confused as her. But Fū got only more confused when she quite a familiar towering figure of what looked like huge a blue, armored rhinoceros beetle, behind her.

It had six green insect wings, along with an actual tail, all growing from the end of its abdomen. The stem of the tail was green but the wings are orange. Its eyes seemed to be covered by a helmet-like skull, from inside of which, an orange glow could be seen. It also had spike protrusions on its shoulders and a row of slits on each shoulder, and six legs — three on each side. The legs are also covered by the blue armor, with the exception of extreme ends which were green in color. It had two pincers with three parts on its face, covering a mouth full of sharp teeth. On its back behind its head, it had a large two sectioned horned protrusion. It was the Nanabi, Chomei.

But before Fū had managed to ask the bijuu any questions, Chomei suddenly burst out into full laughter. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. It, not even that funny, let's get it all out of your," Fū heard a childish and cute voice then say sarcastically from somewhere behind Satsuki.

And she went closer to look who had spoken she found what looked like a grumpy little girl, with deep frown set on her face. The girl was a bit shorter them and looked a little younger then they were now. She had orange hair, that barely reached her shoulder, with a pair long bang going down her front passing her shoulders, and a shorter bang that stopped before it reaches her eyes, hanged bang between a pair of small horns. Her face was narrow and angular in shape, with a pair of short and thick orange eyebrows, large sharp almond eyes, with a feral look to them, which were deep red in colour and had vertical slits as pupils, a pair of pointy canines could be seen sticking out the corners of her mouth, and pair of large rabbit-like ears resided on the top her head.

From the end of her spine she two large fluffy fox tails, along with the stump of third one could be seen. She wore what looked like a black kimono, with a collar around her neck and body harness covering her upper body. That along with some spiked cuffs that were wrapped around her wrist and ankles. In the middle of the harness and attached to her collar were what looked like sturdy, metal padlocks, that had the kanji for 'seal' engraved on them. All in all, Fū thought the girl looked quite adorable, and couldn't quite understand why Chomei as hard it was.

"Okay, that's enough," the fox girl snapped irritated. "Stop laughing you overgrown bug, or I'll make you," she threatened, which only made Chomei laugh even harder. "It's not even that funny," the girl huffed, making Chomei laugh so hard it even started to choke.

"So that's the Nanabi no Kabutomushi, Chomei, huh?" Satsuki asked Fū, completely ignoring what was happening between the giant beetle and little fox girl.

"Huh. Oh.. Yeah, that's is Chomei," Fū answered weakly, still confused about what was happening, but she could see that Satsuki had started to piece things together.

"Where are we and who the fox girl?" Fū asked confused.

"I think we're in a mindscape of some kind," Satsuki replied. "And for the girl is, believe it or not, she is actually..." but before Satsuki could say anything more, the girl in question had clamped her hands tightly over Satsuki mouth. "You say nothing, and that goes twice for you, you damn insect," the girl had then growled threateningly with a glare, although her cute and adorable appearance, took out of a lot of the sting in her threatening atmosphere.

"Oh, don't be so grouchy," Chomei said with a repressed giggle. "I don't how this has happened, but I think this new look suits you, Kurama."

The little girl, which Fū now know was named Kurama, just huffed and pouted with a sullen look on her face. Which just made her even more adorable, Fū thought, not dared to voice that thought aloud, as she was the would appreciate it. As her gut told her that this girl was a lot more dangerous then she looked, meaning it was in Fū best interest not to upset little fox girl.

"Fū, do you remember how I told you how felt some kind of familiar coming from Satsuki, and how I told you how told I thought she was a jinchūriki, although not sure of which one?" Chomei then asked Fū, turn from Kurama to her.

"Yeah, sure... You to be on guard because of that..."

"Well, I can confirm that Satsuki id indeed is a jinchūriki. I can even now tell you, what she contains." Chomei informed Fū with glee, and Fū feels how fox girl's glare only intensified for each word Chomei spoke.

"Really?" Fū asked, looking at any another huge chakra beast. But when she couldn't find any, she asked. "Which one is it? And why can't I see it or isn't it here at all?"

"Ohh... It's here alright, right in front of you in fact," Chomei said mysteriously. Kurama, who on until now only glared at Chomei while using her hands to keeping Satsuki from saying anything, now let go of the girl and started to rush at the beetle. Fū was quite surprised at how fast the girl was, and mention seemingly immense strength the girl possessed, as she was able to push the giant insect back a bit when she attacked Chomei.

"Hmm.. so you still have some power, even in this weakened state," Chomei pondered out loud.

"You see, Fū. This girl here is, like me, a bijuu," Chomei said as it lifted the struggling girl by the scruff of the neck on her clothes, and dumped her on a befuddled Fū. Who had a hard time associating the cute little fox girl, with giant chakra beasts like Chomei.

Seeing the confusion on Fū face, Chomei sighed and started to explain. "Like I said before, I don't have happened to make her look like this, but this without a doubt is the nine-tailed fox, Kyuubi no Kitsune, Kurama, the strongest of the tailed beasts."

This only made Fū even more confused, as from what she had heard the Kyuubi had disappeared when is jinchūriki had died. Which was the reason she, the Nanabi's jinchūriki, was in Konoha to replace the bijuu they had lost. But now she found out it wasn't as lost, as everyone thought it was. Not knowing what to do, and wanting answers, Fū asked how this could be, and why everyone thought the Kyuubi was gone. While Kurama had refused to answer, Satsuki had more than happy to tell them her tale, and at the end of it, most of Fū's question had been answered.

Then question when back to where they were, and they had ended up here. This time it was Chomei who explained it was it who dragged them here, and something like shared mindscape, that jinchūriki enter, but only if the were in physical contact with another jinchūriki. It then explained it had dragged them here because it wanted to know what it was that Satsuki contained and this was the fastest and easiest way to do that.

When they returned from out of the mindscape, they discovered that only a few seconds had passed in real time. The Hokage noticing that something had changed with girls, under the few seconds they shaken hands, got worried and asked if they were alright. After a brief moment of hesitation, Satsuki told him what Fū had discovered thank Chomei, but without saying anything outright just in case anyone was listening in. The old man sighed deeply as he had not foreseen that complication when dealing with another jinchūriki. But after Fū had given him and Satsuki a promise to keep it a secret, it alleviated his worries at it slightly.

 **-| End Flashback |-**

The door to classroom then opened, and it was into this chaos that the chunin instructors, Umino Iruka and Mizuki, walked as they entered the room. Walking slowly, they made their way to the teacher's podium, Iruka noted all of this classes usual idiosyncratic oddities, with a small sigh and shake of his head.

Iruka then expanded his head and roared, "SIT DOWN NOW!" causing the entire class to come to order at last. "Hello, class as many of you know, we will be taking our final exam today. We will begin with the written portion. Then we will continue on with taijutsu, and then is the ninjutsu portion of the test, which will conclude the day."

Iruka quickly passed out the test, and began the exams. They had 30 minutes to finish it up. As soon as the test was collected. Mizuki led them outside for the Taijutsu portion, while Iruka graded the written portion. As they came outside Mizuki began to explain the rules;

"Alright simple enough. I will challenge each one of you inside this circle. Your objective is to stay inside and keep up for at least 3 minutes. I will continue until you're either forced out, or you reach the 6-minute mark. The longer you stay in the more points you will score. As well you can't use any weapons or jutsus. Just taijutsu."

Many kids nodded their heads. Some of the civilians looked nervous. Though all the clan kids were relaxed. They normally did this with their families. As well it was just three minutes.

Most of the civilians ended up barely passing the mark. There was one or two that made it up to the five minutes. When a clan kid finally went up, Shino, he only managed four minutes. Which was reasonable enough since his clan specializes in bugs, usually in long distance. Then came Shikamaru who could have made it farther, but just stopped after three minutes. Then went Chōji who did the same since he was too lazy to continue. Fū only lasted four minutes.

So did Satsuki, but Hinata knew they had been holding back. They usually did while they were at the Academy, Hinata had once asked them why did that, but they had only responded with that the most basic of all ninja arts was deception. Meanwhile Ino and Hinata just barely missed the six-minute mark. Kiba and Sasuke though did manage to last all six minutes.

"Ok, that was the last one," Mizuki called out, after finishing with Kiba. "Let's move along to ninjutsu portion of the test, everyone back inside."

"Alright everyone it's time for the last exam, one at a time I will call you and you will enter the room and perform the jutsu we ask of you if you have any clan jutsu or other jutsu you will receive extra credit. First up we have Chōji Akimichi." Iruka says as everyone has made it back into the classroom. Chōji walks forward towards the room for the examination.

"What do you think the jutsu are Fū?" Hinata asks.

"Probably the most basic of the academy jutsu. I swear it's like the civilian council is just trying to make sure that their children can make it through the academy and weaken our forces."

"That may just be what they are doing," Satsuki says.

"But that could be a real problem," Hinata says. Over the next twenty minutes everyone went in and passed, and then Iruka called out.

"Satsuki you're next." Satsuki gets up and walks over to the room, she walks in and then stands in front of Iruka and Mizuki and waits for instructions.

"First up is the Henge no jutsu, please take the form of the third Hokage."

"Henge!" a cloud of smoke envelops Satsuki and when it clears a perfect replica of the third Hokage, asking them how they had been. She even had gotten the voice, and the general aura the old man often exuded, mostly correct.

"Excellent Satsuki." Iruka says smiling.

"Next test is the Kawarimi no jutsu." Mizuki throws a kunai at Satsuki, but Satsuki uses the substitution technique and a log appear in her place, she then uses it again, putting herself back in her original position.

"Nicely done Satsuki, the Kawarimi no jutsu passed."

"The final test is the Bunshin no jutsu." Mizuki says.

"Iruka-sensei the test requires at least three clones right? So if do more the three I will still pass right?" Satsuki asks inquisitively.

"Yes, that is the test. Actually, if you can pull off an advanced bunshin technique, you'll receive an extra credit to your score," Iruka informed.

"Ok, was just checking." Satsuki then brought her hands in a cross shape and exploded out her chakra. "Bunshin no Jutsu!" She called out as a cloud of smoke enveloped the room, when it cleared there were several dozen of Satsuki's in the room, each wearing identical vulpine grins. "Senseis~" They cooed in unison. "Did we pass~?"

"Yes, congratulation you have passed the test as there are thirty perfectly healthy clones here, which more the required," Iruka said, handing her a forehead protector with a black cloth. Satsuki ties it around her neck and walks out smiling at her classmates. Fū looks over at Satsuki.

"So you passed. What jutsu did they ask for?" Fū asks.

"Of course I did. Transformation, substitution, and clones; you know the basic stuff. But you get extra credit if you use advanced techniques."

"Useful to know."

Satsuki had lot had had a lot of trouble with the Bunshin no jutsu in past, no matter what she had done it always seemed to somehow fail. Fū had suffered the same problem, but it had been Hinata who identified what her friends had done wrong. After yet another failed attempt from Satsuki and Fū to do the jutsu, Hinata had offered use her Byakugan to see if it was the way they were molding their chakra that was the problem.

It was then she saw that while that there was no problem with used their chakra, they use way too much of it, overpowering the jutsu, and thereby making it fail. To test this theory, she had asked her friends to instead creating one, they should try create as many clones as they could using the amount chakra. The result had astonishing as the training ground they had been using, was suddenly filled black and green haired little girls.

Hinata then explained what she discovered with her Byakugan, along with anything she thought might help her friends with this particular problem. But neither Fū nor Satsuki had yet managed to create less the thirty clones, but at least they had managed reduce it from being in triple number as it had been in the start. Which was a great progress for them, they thought.

"Fū your up." Iruka calls out. Fū stands up and walks into the room, to pass her test.

 **/|~{ (- II -) }~|\**

 **TBC**

 **/|~{ (- II -) }~|\**


	3. Chapter 3 – The First Step

**/|~{ (- Author's Note -) }~|\**

 **Disclaimer -** The same as chapter one.

 **Updated 20017-06-06:** Just fixed some errors, I didn't see before. Mostly spelling and grammar, but also few forgotten words here and there. There were much more than I first thought. But I think I got most of them now. I also added a title.

 **Updated 20017-07-04:** Fixed some parts, rewrote other, along with correcting some errors.

 **Updated 20018-02-17:** Fixed removed some parts, while rewrote some others.

 **Update 2018-02-17:** Grammar  & Spell check

 **/|~{ (- Author's Note -) }~|\**

 **Chapter 3 – The First Step**

Behind old wooden with a stylised kanji for shadow followed by the kanji for fire. In a large, somewhat oval room with large window, filled with stacks of unfinished paperwork, sat a gaunt and tired old man, hunched over some files. He had the wrinkles and liver spots of old age, he was dressed in the white and red robes and ceremonial hat of the Hokage. The old man's name was Sarutobi Hiruzen, nicknamed "The Professor" and hailed as a "God of Shinobi". He was the third Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, the village hidden in the leaves. He was once again sitting at his desk late at night, wrestling with the once and future enemy of all Kage paperwork.

He currently had a weary, burdened look about him that had nothing to do with his advancing years. The files in front of him had to do with the newest batch of graduates from the Ninja Academy. Hiruzen was currently trying to figure out what he would do with this newest batch of genins. Of the class that graduated twenty-one had made genin, however, what had resulted in the mess he was in now, was that Shimura Danzo had added a boy to the new roster making it twenty-two. He has spent the past few hours re-organizing the teams to fit this new boy to the list and still hasn't found a place for him. A Root drops out, Danzo had stated. Hiruzen couldn't help but feel like his old friend was up to something. 'To think Danzo would let a boy with so much potential fall through his hands. Just cause he didn't have enough loyalty toward him alone. If that was the case he would have killed him in an instant. Something just didn't add up.'

Hiruzen knew the old warhawk was up to something, but what he didn't know. His old teammate was as slippery as they came, so Hiruzen had a hard time guessing his end goal. But he suspected it had something to do with the young Uchiha that had just graduated. And it was the young Uchiha, while was both popular and with excellent grades, that concerned Hiruzen the most. He could see a lot of anger and hate in young boy's cloudy dark eyes, along with a large thirst for power, which only made the wizened old man fear for what the boy may do to get to the power he craved. With a shake of his head, Hiruzen decided it was time to give up trying to re-organizing the teams, and go with his first plan after he was given the new boy.

Now with that headache solved he called forth the four remaining people who had expressed an interest in being this year Jōnin-sensei. Appearing before were three of the four shinobi he had called. 'Well I never expected Kakashi to arrive on time,' he had thought.

Looking at the four Jōnin directly in front of him, he nods to the two to the right. One being his bearded chain-smoking son Sarutobi Asuma, the next being the genjutsu mistress of Konoha Yuhi Kurenai. Passing two files over to them, he says "Congratulations, you are now the senseis for team 8 and team 10." Turning to Asuma, "Your team consists of the second coming of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Kurenai you got the tracker team you asked for."

After hearing what their Hokage told them, they both beaming, happy that they go the teams that they had wanted, with a nod they both left the room to study their team's capabilities. Watching them go Hiruzen turned to the last the person that remained in his office. An ex-ANBU, a past student of the Yondaime Hokage, Hiruzen then sighed and looked at him.

"Kakashi," he said, "you will be given squad 7, a frontal assault team." Passing the folder over, Kakashi opened it to see the who was on his team. "But I want you a keep eye this one," Hiruzen said, pointing at the file of a really pale skinned boy named Sai. "His background is a mystery, and he doesn't exist in any of the records. Along with that Danzo, is up to something... I don't know what yet... So see if can learn anything from him. I also want to you a keep your eye on Uchiha Sasuke, his psychological profile is most worrying."

After taking a deep bloss from his pipe the Hokage continued. "Uchiha Sasuke is a bitter, revenge-obsessed youth. He is emotionally or/and mentally unstable. As it is now, someone just needs to say his brother's name and offer him power, and he would gladly follow them anywhere. Which currently makes him a high flight risk. It has me worried that he might turn his back on the village one day just to get his brother. As his sensei, I want you to take necessary to preventative measures, so that won't happen, and have a backup plan if it does."

Kakashi just nodded in affirmation, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves. With that done the aged Hokage look out they out of large, window of his office.

"Tenzō." Hiruzen then called out. Suddenly an ANBU wearing a mask that resembled a cat appeared behind him and crouched.

"Hokage-sama, what are your orders?" Tenzō said. He didn't know what was happening since the Hokage told the ANBUs to go just now, but he was ready to serve the leader of the village.

"Tenzō, this your new mission," the Hokage said handing him two files. "Since this is a normal mission and not an ANBU mission. Remove your mask, and I'll assign you a codename. While on this mission, your name is Yamato."

"I understand," the ANBU said, revealing a face with black, almond-shaped eyes, which was framed by a happuri-style forehead protector. He then disappeared in a swirl of leaves, as the Hokage dismissed him.

When Hiruzen once again was all alone, he let out a deep sigh and glared at the feared and seemingly never-ending enemy of every Kage. Even though fears of war, death, insanity and most possibly the destruction of everything you know and love, are pretty important - they have nothing over the fear of paperwork. As he glared at numerous piles of paperwork littering the room, and he could've sworn that he saw them grin maliciously at him. But that might just be him, he then sighed and got back to work at demolishing the numerous piles of paperwork. Hoping against hope that his efforts to stop the paperwork invasion wouldn't be in vain.

 **/|~{ (- III -) }~|\**

A few days later, as the light began to shine down on the peaceful village Konohagakure. It was an early morning in the village hidden in the leaves. The sun was just starting to rise, lightening the sky in oranges and yellows. People began to slowly wake up and start yet another day of their lives, merchants getting their businesses ready, parents making breakfast for their children, and children getting ready to go to school like it had always been…

It was another normal day, and as the sun shone into a small apartment, a dark-skinned girl woke up, her eyes popping open and ears perking up. There were a soft snoring sound and a hint of sweet scent hovering about her nostrils. Looking down she saw a small lump her bed with dark hair attached to a body too small for its actual age. The little girl stirred a bit and snuggled closer to her bedmate as she felt the other girl move, even though the little girl still seemed to be deep in slumber.

As Fū turned to look at the clock, she decided there was only one sane thing to do. Rearrange the covers so that Satsuki was covered up as well (which gave her enough room to practically squish her roommate and best friend like a teddy bear) and go back to sleep. At least that had been the plan at first. But just as she was about fall asleep again, her eyes locked on to the calendar and the number '15' was circled. 'Explanatory Meeting' was written on top. It took Fū sleepy mind awhile, but she soon then remembered that it was to today then they would be an assigned to a genin team and a Jōnin instructor.

For a moment she lay there wondering if she should get up without waking Satsuki, or if she should wake her up instead. It took some wiggling to free herself from her arms, Satsuki made unhappy sounds slowly waking, Fū let loose a massive yawn as she slowly sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes looking towards the window where the sun was spilling into the room.

"Hey~ who told you to wake so early?" Satsuki huffed grumpily, still half asleep reaching out to wrap her arms around Fū again pulling back against her. "You make a pretty good pillow, so lie down and sleep some more." But before Fū could reply Satsuki had already fallen asleep again.

Sighing to herself, Fū to crawl out of the bed, picked up her clothes for the day and headed for the bathroom. She had decided to let Satsuki sleep some more before she needed to force her out of bed. While she was in the bathroom, she paused at the mirror to reminisce as she waited for the water to heat up. The years since Fū arrived at Konoha and meet Satsuki had changed her quite a lot, both physically and mentally. She slowly trailed her eyes up her-well, not washboard-flat, but still firm-looking-stomach to the growing perky mounds on her chest.

While she was not especially curvy, but she decently fit and slender. She had a runners ass, and her budding breasts, while not bountiful like some in her year group, were kind of small and firm like young apples. Her body was lithe and with an athletic tone, and she had always had this boyish look to her, which gave her a somewhat androgynous look. She was about average in height for her age, maybe just a bit under for age group. She had deeply tanned skin, that made her large almost featureless orange eyes and thin, mint-green swaying hair pop out fantastically. It was casually short, but there was a tuft of hair tied up on both sides of her forehead.

While the physical differences were somewhat obvious, the mental differences were harder to trace, especially for Fū herself. But most of them could attribute to her friends, especially her best friends Hinata and Satsuki, the later more so than the former. As they started the academy the three of them had become fast friends, with Fū and Satsuki moving in together to save costs as they both were orphans. As once they were officially kunoichi, they could no longer get an orphan's stipend and had to rely on what money they made through missions. And form what they heard, you didn't make a lot of money from the D missions all genins started with, which also the reason they had chosen one of the smaller apartments. While it was quite large for just one person, it had just enough room for the both of them, at least for now.

As Fū left her to stroll down through memory lane, she noticed that the mirror had begun to fog over, signal the water was now hot enough for her liking. She sighed as steep in the shower, relishing the feel of hot, warm water running down her body. Muscles relaxed as heat seeped through the pale brown skin. Adjusting the shower head a bit a generous amount of hot water gushed over her head. It really invigorated her body to the core. Running a hand through her wet locks she sighed again as she slowly began to wash her body thoroughly.

 **/|~{ (- III -) }~|\**

Satsuki's eyes fluttered as bright-line shone through her window causing her to wake yet again from her deep sleep, to face yet another day. She could hear the soft sounds of the shower in the bathroom running and her roommate, Fū, singing or humming or whatever that sound was that she was hearing besides the running water. Turning to her other side she figured while Fū was in the shower she could still manage to get a few more minutes of shut-eye before she could expect someone to bother her. Although changed when she what day it was, along with not being able to fall asleep again. So instead Satsuki sat up and yawned, stretching like a cat, as she heard the water of the shower turn off, the clattering of things around the bathroom and the shuffling of clothes before the bathroom door was pulled open, and an already fully dressed Fū walked out, with her hair tied up at two sides with blue hair bands.

She wore what looked like a small, turquoise, sleeveless yukata, with two poofy arm warmers, and a white sleeveless top covering her yukata. She had a bright blue forehead protector which was worn around her waist like a belt, with a bow tied on the left. Under that Fū wore a pair short, dark turquoise spats, with tabi socks adorned her feet. To top off her outfit she also wore fingerless turquoise gloves with a white pentagram on the back of each hand. Which were actually storage seals containing Fū's personal choice of weapons, a pair wind-and-fire wheels. They were melee weapons, which were wielded as a pair, and were visually are similar to chakrams. Each wheel was a flat metal ring about 38 cm in diameter. One quarter-segment had a padded grip with a cross-guard; while the other three segments have protruding flame-styled blades.

After taking an invigorating shower herself, and making sure she was presentable, Satsuki looked at her reflection in the bathroom. What meets her was a cute little doe-eyed girl. She had almost hypnotic cat-like golden eyes, soft looking tanned caramel skin and thick, black hair, with some red highlight. Now that it was damp and actually being pulled down by its own weight, its length was even more impressive than usual, almost touching the floor. Otherwise, it usually spilled around her in loose ringlets and lazy waves, long enough to reach the back of her thighs, along with thin pigtails on both sides tied up with red ribbons.

While usually, long hair was normally not entirely conducive to ninja work, but there existed ways to counter that. Although in Satsuki's case her hair was her weapon, thanks to the bloodline Orochimaru had created in her. And over the years Satsuki had gained quite a good control over it. She could now use her hair to form weapons in 0.953 seconds, and she could change the shape of her limbs in 1.126 seconds. Although she seldom did that, as she usually just stuck transforming her hair. And while could transform any part of her body, she couldn't add new part body parts, like extra pair arms or legs; nor could she change her coloring, or at least she had yet discovered how to do so. It was still somewhat up in the air if could do it or not, but for now, she didn't know how.

Also over the years, their and knowledge of this new unknown bloodline limit Orochimaru had created in Satsuki had only grown. And while it was no secret, it was still from common knowledge that she even had a bloodline limit at all, as she had never used in the academy. As up until now she had had only been allowed to use it during special training sessions, that had the presence of trained medical personal, just in case something went wrong. So the only the ones that really knew anything about it were her friends, her godfather, the Hokage, and the medical staff.

What they had discovered was that, while she could do almost whatever she wanted with her hair without much using too much chakra or stamina, the same was not true with rest of her body. While she had only been allowed transform her limbs, as it seems to take more effort, not to mention more chakra and calories were needed for any kind of transformation, and the amount increased quite significantly. Transforming her limbs also took a longer than just transforming her hair, but transformations of her limbs were often sturdier then transformations of her hair.

While she could turn her hair and body parts into weapons, she couldn't turn her entire body into non-living objects. Sure, while she could do so in theory, it was really inadvisable in practice. As she needed at least have her torso and head to remain a living object, obviously, as those contained important things a human need to stay alive. They had also discovered that there seemed to be a limit to how much she could transform in a short time, with the downside that if she uses her bloodline too excessively, her body seems to overheat, leaving her extremely weak, sometimes unable to move, and in the worst case causing her to pass out with quite the high fever.

Which was mostly the reason she had been trained not to be dependant on her abilities.

Satsuki had also managed transform different parts of her body to that of an animal; but transforming her body into a living being had not only been slower, more trying and exhausting than some inanimate object. It had required her to have actually had some basic knowledge of how what she transforming in to was constructed and functioned in the first place. While things like teeth or claws didn't need much information, more complex things like; eyes, ears, gills, or wings need much more.

And while she had been able to transform her arms into wings, they weren't very useful or practical, not mention it took too long and was very exhausting. Because even if her arms were wings was she still wouldn't be able to fly with them, only glide short distances at most before crashing down. As a human just didn't have the musculature need for flapping pair wings. Not mention that they would have to huge just to be able to lift her off the ground. Which meant she need more and larger and muscles, resulting in large wings, and so forth. While Satsuki thought there was probably a cut of a point somewhere it too much hassle for her to be was worth it, not mention the time and power requirement that it would need to make all those changes happen.

Actually, the reason Satsuki had interested in flying in the first place, was that she had felt a slightly jealously when she had seen Fū zipping around the on the insect's wings granted to her by Chomei. Which had started her on her own path on how to achieve flight using her own abilities, copying what had learned from studying how birds flew. And while she had not managed fly, they had discovered that she couldn't add new things to her body, just manipulate what was already there.

They had also discovered that any physical clones she created, was unable to use any of her transformation abilities at all. It kind of stumped them, and still had yet to find an explainable reason for it being so. Another thing they had also discovered that Satsuki couldn't transform anything that was not a direct part of her own body. They had tried with things like clothes, shoes, or just the nature in her general surroundings, but it was all completely unaffected by any of transformative abilities. They had also had tried with like some of her cut off hair or spilled blood, but to no avail, as she couldn't affect those more then anyone else could.

There had been a theory, that as long it was something that had once been a part of her body, no matter what state it was in she would be able to control it. It had been quite the favorite amongst some of the ones that help research this new bloodline, and so it had been tested extensively, before it was completely debunked, much their disappointment. So whenever she had worn something on arms or legs, while she had transformed, it either becomes loose or had quite literally been ripped apart. Which was the reason why Satsuki mostly only transformed her hair, as she her liked clothes.

A first glance Satsuki looked innocent and happy and like an all-around nice girl, who looked like she wouldn't hurt a fly. But looks could be deceiving, for anyone looking closer would she had a soft, yet firm athletic body, with a slim and lithe build, that seemed to be built for dexterity and agility. And Fū knew that Satsuki possessed a level of combat prowess that belied her small stature, even though she had never shown it at the academy. Not that Fū had shown all that she could either at the academy. And due to her size, Satsuki was also very light and quick on her feet, and actually was much stronger then she looked. Even though she, like Fū was 12 years old, she surely didn't certainly looks like one, and people often mistook her for a child that had yet reached ten.

Satsuki was incredibly petite, with a quite underdeveloped figure that had yet to begin undergoing puberty and as such. And like Fū, Satsuki had tanned-skin skin, but hers was a few shades lighter. She had long, thick, lustrous and gorgeous hair, that Fū secretly was slightly jealous of. While Satsuki's hair had started off as jet black, but over the years it had become more of a purplish-black in color. Small adorably pointed ears could be seen barely poking through under her hair. They reminded her of elf ears—except elves weren't so short,

Satsuki had wide, striking, golden cat-like eyes, which seemed to be the very essence of innocence and sweetness. Loose bangs framed around a childish face with slightly red cheeks, which were plump with baby fat. Enhancing her already the childlike appearance, which already made her look innocent and harmless, at times even gullible. Fū had to admit that Satsuki was undeniably cute, however, this was her most dangerous trait, at least that was what Fū thought.

While Satsuki's small and underdeveloped looking body made her look kind of frail and delicate, but her friends knew her better. Satsuki's diminutive frame and the cuteness of her appearance were all but deceptive, as Satsuki was quite mischievous at the core. She was also adept at the art of walking in shadows, moving in silence, along with proficient with the skill of blending into a crowd. Add to that the fact she had no problems or qualms about using her innocent and childish appearance to her advantage. Then you have quite the proficient and hard to catch prankster, which luckily it only really came out when Satsuki was really bored and had nothing else to do, or she felt that someone had done something to deserve it.

Fortunately for everyone, her pranks had been few and far apart, for her pranks were quite elaborate. But since no one had yet been able to catch her in the act, and she usually looked too "pure and innocent" to pull any pranks on people, she has gotten away with the most of them without anyone knowing better. The few times she had caught she managed to play it off as her being framed, or just being at wrong the place, at the wrong time. But all who knew her well enough knew better, while the rest just seemed to swallow it all, for the most at least.

Her clothing was simple and consisted of a short black yukata that went down to her mid-thighs, with a yellow sash around her waist keeping her clothes together. She didn't really wear anything else, except for underwear, of course, not even shoes or sandals, as she wanted to be able to utilize her abilities fully, without destroying her clothes more than necessary.

All of their clothes were made from high-quality materials and had wire mesh inside the clothing for extra defense, while that had made them quite expensive they thought it would be worth it in the future. Satsuki godfather had agreed to stand for the bill anyway, on one of his few rare visits back to the village. Saying it was the least he could do, as he didn't visit his god-daughter that much, and felt slightly bad about that. He was also the responsible for creating most of the various seals that were on their outfits, claiming the same reasons as with the clothes.

As Satsuki had showered Fū started making some rice and preparing some miso soup. She had also gone into the refrigerator and got some vegetables and some meat. The food was already done and had Fū set the table for them, when Satsuki walked into the room, yawning widely and rubbing one cloudy golden eye looking very much like the nine-year-old child she appeared as.

"Good morning, Fū," Satsuki yawned more awake than before, but still a quite bit sleepy.

"Morning Satsuki," Fū chirped in replied as she began eating.

"You're so much better than at cooking then I am," Satsuki said as she sat down and began digging in herself.

"One us have to be, as you only seemed to have learned to make instant ramen. I think you only eating ramen is the reason you're still a midget, " Fū said smugly.

"HEY, I will hit a growth spurt soon you will see," Satsuki huffed with an adorable pout.

"Sure~, you will," Fū chuckled. "And put that thing away. Do you even have a permit for that thing?"

They soon finished up their breakfast, with Satsuki offering to do the dishes as Fū had cooked. After that was done they checked themselves over one last time, making sure they had everything they needed, before locking the door and heading out to the Academy.

 **/|~{ (- III -) }~|\**

As they walked to the Academy Satsuki noticed that people didn't glare at her since they didn't recognize her anymore thanks to her having been under the seal for so several years, which had taken her a lot of times getting too, and she still expected them to return sometimes. When they arrived at their destination they went into their classroom and noticed everyone being there already except for Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino, so they just sat in the far back in the corner next to Hinata, along with Nara Shikamaru and Akimichi Chōji. As they sat down and Fū began to engage Hinata in small talk, Satsuki decided to nap a little, as was still tired, so she put her feet on top of the table and leaned back, putting her forehead protector over her eyes.

Not long after Satsuki fell asleep she was awoken with a loud noise and the crash of the door to the classroom being kicked open and a pink-haired banshee and her blonde rival falling into the room in one heap before they jumped up each claiming to have won the race. Satsuki just rolled her eyes and knew it was a race over who got to sit next to the ''famous and awesome'' Uchiha Sasuke.

While the girls were still fighting Iruka came in and ordered everyone to please shut the hell up and sit down. When everyone had followed his orders he took up a clipboard and said. "Before I start, I just wanted to once again congratulate you all to you on graduating. You are all now on the way to become splendid shinobi, and I hope you will have a long carrier."

After having paused for a bit Iruka then continued. "So, now you are all graduated from the academy and will be placed on teams considering your strengths and weaknesses. This year's rookie of the year was Uchiha Sasuke, and the Top kunoichi this year was Haruno Sakura congratulations. Now lets got on with the team assignments. Team one is..."

 **/|~{ (- III -) }~|\**

 **TBC**

 **/|~{ (- III -) }~|\**


End file.
